Limits
by CyberFlow
Summary: Perry knew his duty as an agent was of utter importance, just as everyone in OWCA did. His duty as a pet, though, was something only other agents with owners understood. Such duty dictated that, no matter who it was, Perry had no patience for those trying to mess with his family.


Perry woke up to a shrilling scream. His heart picked up the pace as he hastily tried to identify his surroundings while shaking off the drowsiness. When the Flynn-Fletcher living room came into view he let out a relieved sigh. He wasn't in a mission, and there was no danger nearby. He had only been taking a midday nap on his little bed in said room. But just as he was about to dismiss the scream as part of a dream, he heard it again.

It was Candace.

Now, Perry was aware of how often the girl overreacted to practically everything, even in days like this when her brothers were far away in a trip with their friends. Perry knew he should just seek a quieter place and go back to sleep, leaving Candace to solve her little teenage crisis by herself. He couldn't remember the last time that he had had a free day after all. But as the third scream in a row pierced through the house, the platypus decided that he could take a moment to check on her, just in case. He lazily stretched and made his way to the backyard.

When he arrived, he didn't immediately notice anything out of place. Just an empty yard and a very disheveled Candace in the middle of it. Her eyes were darting around uncontrollably, looking for who knew what. Perry looked around as well, hoping to find whatever was bothering her. Not two seconds later, a couple of red blurs appeared out of nowhere and darted all around the place, drawing another scream from the girl.

Squirrels. Perry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as not to blow his cover, although she probably would not have noticed. He had found out about her fear towards squirrels a couple of weeks ago, and he'd discovered that it was rather inconsistent. It all came down to whether Candace's mind was occupied enough not to mind the animals being around her.

This was one of the occasions when, without her brothers or Jeremy to distract her, she could only focus on her fear for the squirrels. He sighed. He should have definitely just gone back to sleep. Scared as she was, the little rodents wouldn't harm her and she would be able to go back to the house in a few minutes.

Yawning, he wondered if there were some earplugs he could use to be able to go back to his nap. Before turning away to go look for them, though, he wanted to check if the squirrels were agents looking for him for some reason, since they were so insistent in staying in their backyard. It _was_ his day off, but if an emergency occurred he wanted to be ready and informed.

He took some steps towards the scene, unsurprisingly going unnoticed by a panicking Candace. Taking a closer look, he mentally frowned. Perry couldn't recognize the two intruders as any of his fellow comrades. Just plain normal squirrels then. But it puzzled him why Candace's yelling hadn't scared them off already. Squirrels were normally driven away by loud noises, and Perry had learned from experience that Candace was the definition of loud. His attention was suddenly drawn to her once again when she spoke.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! J-just stay away from me!" She extended her arms in front of her and waved her hands frantically.

The squirrels, not even close to listening to her, each took a step towards her, causing the girl to take a step back.

"Why can't you leave me alone?!" she cried.

The duo responded by dashing towards her. They did nothing more than brush their tails against her legs, but it was enough to make Candace jump and loose her balance. As soon as she hit the ground, she panicked and covered her eyes. The commotion seemed to finally scare the squirrels off, because shortly after they climbed the backyard's signature tree. Although confused as to this weird behavior, Perry guessed that if it was over he could go towards Candace and snap her out of it. But as he was about to do just that, he heard giggling coming from the tree.

He froze in place and looked up to find the pair of rascals imitating Candace's expressions of moments ago. So the little punks were smarter than regular squirrels... Usually, Perry was willing to put up with animals disliking his young female owner, since she did use to express her spite for "rude smelly creatures". Outright tormenting and making fun of her, Perry decided, was crossing the line. He narrowed his eyes at them as they got ready for another round. Maybe they were actually _dumber_ than normal squirrels.

He quickly placed himself between the tree and a trembling Candace. It wasn't long before the trespassers circled down the trunk and started their way towards the girl. They stopped short, however, when they noticed the platypus in front of her. One of them tilted its head at him, to which he only replied by chattering. He hoped the interaction with another animal would make their run away instincts kick in, but of course, it couldn't be that simple. The squirrels looked at each other, shrugged, and opted to just go around him… or at least, that's what they tried to do. Perry turned around before they could go any further and stepped on both their tails, causing them to trip and slam on the ground. He took a second to make sure Candace was still covering her face and then directed his attention to the young intruders.

He received the angry and annoyed attempts at freedom with an unamused look. Perry chattered to silence them. He pointed at Candace with his head and then shook it sternly. They needed to stop. They seemed to think about it, but after sharing a quick look, they both squeaked as loud as they could. Candace jumped and used her arms to cover her head as if she was being brutally attacked. Irritation filled Perry as they giggled at the reaction they got.

Without waiting to get their attention once again, Perry pressed their tails a little harder to the ground. Any chirps of protest were cut short when they looked at the platypus. With his fur bristled and the most venomous glare he could muster, Perry growled at them. To any human paying attention, this would have sounded as any normal chatter, but to other animals the aggressive warning could not have been clearer. The squirrels silently gulped. Perry knew he didn't have much time before the teenager began wondering if she could move, so he tried making himself clear. He pointed with his head towards the backyard's fence. He wanted them _out_. The rodents nodded slowly and he released their tails. They didn't move, though, seeming to be paralyzed in place. Perry frowned and slapped his tail on the ground impatiently. The sound snapped the squirrels out of it, and they wasted no time in sprinting out of there.

 _Finally,_ Perry thought.

"Did… did they go away?"

Hearing her voice, Perry automatically assumed the mindless pet act. She had peeked through her fingers and was rapidly looking around. He walked towards her.

"Aah! Oh, wait. It's just you Perry!" Relief was apparent in her face. "When did you appear?"

She stood up and dusted herself off, still a little suspicious of her surroundings. While Candace scanned the area, Perry decided that his job was done. But as he turned around, intending to resume his nap, he found himself being lifted.

"Wait, wait, wait! I remember!" she said as she made him face her "I actually heard your 'grrr' sound a while ago! Now that I think of it… I only stopped hearing those _things_ after I heard you! Could it be…?"

Shoot! Had Candace seen any of the things he'd done back there? Had he really screwed up that badly? He opted to play it safe and kept pretending. He chattered as plainly and boringly as he could.

"That's it! _You_ scared them off!" Candace grinned triumphantly.

Perry gulped. If she had really seen everything and she managed to not say anything out there, where there were O.W.C.A. cameras everywhere, maybe he could convince her later to pretend that she had not seen him act strangely. Monogram didn't have to know, and he could just act like he was a little smarter than his family thought. He could, he could…

"You probably smell so bad to other animals that they just ran the opposite direction when you got close!" She smiled at him.

Oh. Sure, Perry could work with that.

"You know, since you somehow managed to make those furry little monsters go away, I just might be in the mood of getting something from the pet store when I return from the…" She paled "…mall."

Dropping Perry to the ground, she reached for her phone and slapped her forehead when she saw the time.

"Oh, no! It's so late! Stacy is going to be furious…"

She ran into the house, with Perry following at his own pace. In the time it took him to get back in, Candace was already downstairs and ready to go.

"Bye, Perry!" Candace said over her shoulder as she rushed out. But a second after she had crossed the front door, she peeked back inside and pointed accusingly at him. " _Don't_ go into my room while I'm out. I mean it!"

And with that, she was gone. Perry rolled his eyes. 'Bye, Perry' was probably as much thanks as he was going to get. She usually didn't even acknowledge him if she was hurrying like that. And he knew she wasn't actually going to buy anything for him, as much as he wished she would. She had probably forgotten all about it already. But that was just the Candace he knew and loved, and he would scare as many squirrels as she needed him to. She was as important to him as her brothers were, even if she didn't spoil him like they did. Besides, she had her moments.

He yawned. He still wanted that nap. But instead of returning to his bed in the living room, he figured he could take Candace on her kind invitation to spend as much time as he wished in her room. He grinned as he made his way up the stairs, eager to doze off on the most comfortable mattress in the house.

* * *

Chewing on his new shrimp-flavored treats (who knew Candace would guess what his favorite platypus-specific snacks were), Perry listened besides the table as Phineas told Linda about how Ferb and him had modified the trees at the forest in the National Park they had gone to. Apparently, now they not only served as a touristic attraction, but they helped in the tour itself by juggling the visitors around to the best spots, making the trip much more entertaining. As always Linda just smiled and nodded, attributing everything to the boys' 'imagination'.

"I'm glad you had fun today," she said "Maybe next time I can go with you and you can show me the 'new route' you created!"

Entering the room, Candace scoffed.

"Only if you want the forest to lose the new attraction the moment you set a foot in it," she muttered low enough for Perry to be the only one to hear it.

Perry internally laughed. Yeah, that was what would most likely happen. Maybe he'd pay a visit to the place before Linda got a chance to go. He really wanted to see a whole forest juggling people around.

Phineas yawned and stretched.

"Well, getting Mother Nature to help you out sure is tiring," he said "I think we'll go to bed now, if you don't mind."

Ferb rubbed his eyes in agreement.

"Of course, boys. Have a good night!" Their mother kissed both of them on top of their heads. Then yawning herself, she turned to look at Candace. "You too, Candace, honey. I'm sure you are exhausted from your day at the mall with Stacy."

"That's not exactly what tired me out today," She crossed her arms and frowned, no doubt remembering her bad morning. "but, sure, I could get some good sleep to have energy for my busting session tomorrow."

"That's the spirit!" Linda said. She kissed her goodnight as well before heading upstairs.

"Come on, Perry." Phineas picked the platypus up. "Time to sleep! Hey Ferb, I think it's your turn to share bed with Perry first, right?"

It was, Perry recalled. But as Phineas was about to hand him to his stepbrother, another pair of hands snatched him away from the kid.

"Actually," Candace said "I think I'll borrow Perry for tonight."

Both the boys blinked in surprise.

"But Candace," Phineas started "aren't you always telling us not to let Perry into your room?"

"Yeah, I know" She sighed. "But Jeremy's mom is making an investigation on the sleep cycle of exotic species or something like that, and she asked me if I could… I don't know! Take notes while he sleeps? "

"But don't you need to stay awake all night for that?"

"I'll use a camera, duh!"

"Alright then!" Phineas smiled widely. "I'm glad that you want to spend more time with Perry! Do you mind, Ferb?"

Ferb shook his head.

"And what about you, boy? Do you want to stay with her tonight?" Phineas asked while ruffling his fur.

Perry only chattered as a response. It wasn't what he'd planned for the night, but being watched while he slept was a given when you were a pet because it was 'adorable', so he didn't have any particular reason to oppose… unless she was planning on dressing him in some stupid dress, in which case he'd be besides Ferb in less time than Candace could yell 'Mom!'.

"See? He'd love to!" Candace said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, we'll see you both in the morning, then!" Phineas said cheerily. He hugged Candace and patted Perry on the head twice, followed by Ferb who also hugged Candace and scratched Perry under his bill as a goodnight. Perry chattered, whishing them goodnight as well, unbeknownst to the boys.

They all headed for their respective bedrooms, Candace carrying Perry the whole way. When they arrived at her room, she dropped him on her bed and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Now listen, stinky," she said "Don't get used to this you hear me? Mrs. Johnson didn't ask me to do this, so don't think it will happen again tomorrow. The only reason I'm letting you in here is because I owe you, and who the heck owes a favor to a _platypus_ of all things, anyway?"

Oh, he knew someone, alright. He didn't know why she still thought she owed him, though. Hadn't she already bought him something?

"If you want to be here-" She gestured to the whole place. "-you are going to need to follow some rules. First of all-"

Perry wanted to sigh so badly. He didn't even get why she was telling him this. He knew that, unlike her brothers, she thought him stupid and absolutely unable to comprehend anything that she said. As she continued her list with 'not drooling, sweating or going to the bathroom on her bed' he started to tune her out. This wasn't an evil monologue and he didn't need to be polite and listen to her rant, so he instead turned away and started searching for a comfortable place to lie down.

"Hey! Are you even- Ugh! Why do I bother?" Perry finally heard her say.

Before he knew it, the lights were out. He heard a 'puff' when Candace threw herself on the bed, claiming the part closest to the wall as her half of it. At least she had given him quite a bit of space. He supposed that sleeping too close to her would earn him being shoved out of the bed, so he took his place to her side very close to the edge.

He circled a couple of times over his chosen spot, while thinking of his day. It had been a bit unusual, no doubt. Not only because he had had to shoo a pair of squirrels to prevent his owner from having a panic attack, but also because a couple of hours later said squirrels had returned with a very guilty-looking agent S, who had apologized on behalf of his unruly nephews. And now, Candace had loaded him with platypus treats and was willingly letting him sleep in her room. Not to mention that she had managed to tell a believable lie _to her brothers_ back downstairs. Definitely not his weirdest day, but still unusual. However, when his eyelids were finally getting heavy and he felt an arm pulling him close, he decided that it had also been one of his best days off.

* * *

 **Well, I hope you liked it! Please tell me what you think! Constructive criticism is always appreciated!**


End file.
